Speakers

Tanisha Aggarwal

Policy Lead – Nationwide Building Society, Co-Chair of Labour in the City

Tanisha currently specialises in policy and public affairs at Nationwide Building Society, where she advises on a wide range of issues such as mutuality legislation, digital currencies, and climate disclosures. She is also Co-Chair of Labour in the City, a growing network of Labour members and supporters who work in financial and related professional services in the UK.  Tanisha was recognised in this year’s Women of Westminster: The 100 list and was a finalist for the PRCA Public Affairs Woman of the Year award in 2024. 

Prior to Nationwide, Tanisha provided strategic political advice to a range of financial services clients at Hanover Communications and worked at the Association of British Insurers as the lead public affairs adviser on the industry’s Brexit campaign.

Ruth Allchurch

UK CEO, Ketchum

In April 2024, Ruth Allchurch joins Ketchum as the UK CEO taking over the helm from Jo-ann Robertson, who will continue in role as CEO of Global Markets.  Ruth will be responsible for leading the next stage of growth for the agency’s brand, corporate, social & influencer and health divisions. Ruth will take the 200-strong, award winning full service agency into its next chapter whilst championing the agency’s focus on being a force for good.

With over 20 years’ experience both in-house and agency side, Ruth’s most recent role was at WE where she was EMEA Managing Director spanning key sectors including technology and healthcare as well as corporate reputation and brand purpose. Ruth led the growth of the UK practise at WE to a team of 100 spanning both work and wins across the likes of:  Capgemini, Elsivier, HSBC, Intel, Microsoft, Barclays Life Skills, Discord and Johnson and Jonson. 

She has a strong track-record within the FMCG space prior to joining WE, Ruth was client-side as Head of Brand PR for Diageo Western Europe for eight years, where she managed brands including Guinness, Smirnoff, Pimms, Gordons to name a few across 13 markets, working on a variety of high profile brand PR activations. These campaigns included Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange programme, the Tanqueray Gin Palace, Guinness Rugby Premiership sponsorship. Ruth also gleaned extensive crisis communications and corporate reputation experience, whilst at Diageo, where she advised c-suite stakeholders on a range of risk mitigation and issues management. 

An English graduate from the University of Birmingham, Ruth has lived in both Canada and Zimbabwe and has several WSET qualifications under her belt.

Shamima Begum

Head of Corporate Communications, EMEA, Adobe

Shamima is a seasoned communications leader with a rich background spanning agency and in-house roles. She brings extensive expertise across corporate, brand, product, executive, customer, and employee communications. Having contributed her talents to renowned technology giants such as Adobe, Oracle, Infosys, Dimension Data, and Worldpay, Shamima has crafted and executed pan-EMEA and localised campaigns that drive tangible business results. Known for her inquisitive nature and collaborative spirit, Shamima approaches projects with a curious mindset and a dedicated team focus, coupled with an unwavering commitment to achieving results. Her hallmark lies in the art of storytelling, where she excels, leveraging authenticity to differentiate herself in the industry.

Currently, Shamima holds the position of EMEA Corporate Communications leader at Adobe, where she spearheads initiatives aimed at managing corporate reputation, navigating issues, and shaping thought leadership strategies. In her role overseeing the Adobe Women’s FA Cup partnership, Shamima orchestrates comprehensive earned, owned, social, and influencer strategies in collaboration with integrated marketing teams. These efforts are geared towards supporting fans, clubs, and players in the competition, harnessing the transformative power of creativity.

Furthermore, Shamima's dedication to fostering diversity and inclusion is evident through her four-year tenure as a trustee for the Taylor Bennett Foundation. This esteemed charity is dedicated to encouraging individuals from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds to pursue careers in communications. A staunch advocate for inclusivity, Shamima is a dynamic and compelling speaker on the subject, actively championing initiatives that drive industry-defining change.

Chantal Bowman-Boyles

Managing Partner, Finn Partners

Bianca Brown

Digital Account Manager, Edelman, Ambassador of Edelman’s Gen Z Lab

Bianca has been at Edelman for two and a half years and is a confident and skilled Digital specialist. She’s bright, articulate, and a thorough thinker and storyteller. She’s gained a variety of experience in B2B and B2C client campaigns and social media programs from end-to-end, including Meta, Microsoft, HARIBO, DP World, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Communications is the professional channel for her creativity and penchant for storytelling, which has grown organically through her passion for culture on social media and its opportunities for developing community. She is also an Ambassador in the UK for the Gen Z Lab, a global collective focused on demystifying the young audience for agency and clients alike.

Alma Castrejon-Davila

Senior Campaigner, Changing Markets Foundation

Jackie Cooper

Global Chief Brand Officer and Senior Advisor, Edelman, Co-founder of Edelman’s Gen Z and Longevity Labs

Jackie oversees the business of brand at Edelman, leading a global brand network that creates integrated campaigns for commercial and purposeful impact. She has a special interest in the intersection of brand, culture, entertainment, and impact and is an Advisor to Jamie Oliver and The Sir Ken Robinson Foundation, as well as an industry mentor.

She continues to work with high-profile names who have achieved fame, ensuring they are protected, while helping them establish the foundations for a compelling business and legacy.

In 1987 she co-founded PR & Marketing agency JCPR, awarded for cultural impactful campaigns, including the launch of O2, Wonderbra, Mary Kate & Ashley, PlayStation, Wembley Stadium and Concorde’s final flight. JCPR was acquired by Edelman in 2004 and Jackie served as Creative Director on campaigns, including Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, Dirt is Good for Omo/Unilever, and the Halo launch for Xbox. She then became Global Creative Chair, joining the Executive Committee and establishing the firm’s formal creative offering, building a global community of 650 creatives, planners, and production talent. She led Edelman’s debut at Cannes and oversaw the firm’s first foray into entering the Lions, garnering 65 awards within the first three years.

Jackie became the first woman to be inducted into the PR Week UK Hall of Fame in 2018.

Lynne Corner

Deputy Director/COO of the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA), the Director of Voice®, Co-founder of Edelman’s Longevity Lab

Professor Lynne Corner is Deputy Director/COO of the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA), the Director of Voice® and co-founder of The Longevity Lab with Edelman. Voice® is an international citizen community, established to harness the immense insights, experience, skills and wisdom of the public and drive a cross generational dialogue on healthy longevity and co-develop products and services with businesses. NICA + Voice ® are currently expanding the Voice® community to key global geographies including Singapore, the US and Taiwan with further chapters established in Italy, Australia and Canada. Lynne has wide experience working on all aspects of healthy ageing and brain capital. She has particular interest in consumer insights, trends, big data and behaviour change in the context of healthy longevity and is a Trustee of the Lewy Body Society.  

Savannah Dixon

Head of Communications, ManpowerGroup

Mariella Frostrup

Journalist, Broadcaster, Author,

Javier Garrido

Senior Consultant, SEC Newgate EU, Brussels office

Javier is a Senior Consultant at SEC Newgate EU. Based in Brussels, he has substantial experience across a range of policy areas and has supported clients with navigating the EU’s regulatory landscape for more than 6 years. Prior to joining the consultancy sector, he worked for two European NGOs and at the European Parliament.

Paul Holmes

Founder & Chair, PRovoke Media

Paul Holmes, founder and chair of PRovoke Media, has been writing about public relations for more than 25 years. Paul began his career in local newspapers in the north of England and also worked for a newspaper group in South London before joining PR Week as news editor in 1985.

In 1987 he moved to New York to launch the short-lived US edition of that publication, and after that project came to an inglorious end worked with Adweek and Adweek’s Marketing Week for a year.

In 1989, he launched his own company, initially publishing Inside PR, and later Reputation Management magazine, both focused on providing analysis of critical trends and issues in the public relations industry. He created the annual Public Relations Agency Report Card, which included profiles of the leading PR firms in the US, and the Creativity in Public Relations Awards, which grew to become the largest in North America.

Early in 2000, Holmes launched The Holmes Group, which provides knowledge and insight to public relations professionals across a variety of platforms, including a website, an e-newsletter, events, printed reports, research and consulting assignments, and the SABRE Awards competition. The group’s flagship title, PRovoke Media (p/k/a The Holmes Report), covers the public relations business in the Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and the Asia-Pacific region. In 2011, Paul was inducted into the ICCO Hall of Fame.

Neil Johnson

Executive Director, Global Heart Hub

Naomi Kerbel

Director, Communications, SEC Newgate UK

Naomi is a communications expert with deep experience of broadcast having spent 12 years as a TV journalist at Bloomberg, Sky News and CNBC.

Before TV news Naomi was a corporate access originator for Goldman Sachs bringing together institutional investors and corporate clients in the FTSE 100.

 

She is an advocate for social justice, access and equality through her podcast Show Me The Way which profiles women making a difference to lives of others; as a judge for the Veuve Clicquot BOLD awards; an ambassador for Asia Women of Achievement Awards and a founding advisor for OK Mentor.

Lindsay Landi

Head of PR and Communications, Samsung UK

Lindsay has over a decade’s experience working in-house and agency for brands including Sony, EE, Virgin Media, Airbnb and Virgin Active. At Samsung she has worked in both European and subsidiary-based roles, and currently leads communications at Samsung in the UK. She is fascinated by the intersection between technology and culture and is a passionate supporter of gender equality as a member of the Women in PR Committee.

Chad Latz

Chief Innovation Officer and Global President, Digital Innovation Group, BCW

Alessandro Manfredi

Chief Marketing Officer, Dove

As CMO of Dove, Alessandro is responsible for marketing worldwide for one of the world’s largest beauty brands. Having joined Unilever 23 years ago, he has held a variety of international and local roles across the US and Europe within Unilever’s Beauty and Wellbeing and Personal Care portfolios. Having spent more than 14 years on Dove his impact has been far reaching. From the launch of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, one the most awarded campaigns of recent decades, the

development of the Dove Self Esteem Project, which has educated over 94 million young people in 153 countries and become the biggest self-esteem provider in the world, to launching Dove Men+Care, Dove’s first male grooming range. Italian born, Ale is based in London where he lives with his wife and two children.

Hazel McGuire

General Manager UK & Europe, Intrepid Travel

Maja Pawinska Sims

Associate Editor, PRovoke Media

Maja Pawinska Sims has been the EMEA editor of PRovoke Media since January 2018. She has been writing about public relations and communications for 22 years, first as features editor of PRWeek and then as a freelance writer and editor for PR agencies and their clients around the world, including three years as Weber Shandwick’s EMEA editor. She was named Journalist of the Year at the Global Women in Marketing Awards in 2019, where the judges noted: “Maja proves how empathy can drive brilliant editorial thinking. She is clearly an absolute expert in her field and proves that you can challenge an industry while also championing it.”

Rachael Pay

President Health EMEA & APAC Integration Lead, Weber Shandwick

Rianne Poot

Global Vaccines Director, Pfizer

Rianne Poot is Global/US Marketing Director for Vaccines at Pfizer. With over 15 years of experience as a pharmaceutical marketing professional, Rianne specialises in consumer marketing and strategy. Her passion for travel and innovation has led her to work and live in various markets, including Southeast Asia, Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Rianne is known for excelling in multicultural environments, fostering innovation, driving growth initiatives, and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships. In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with her family and volunteering.

Allie Renison

Associate Director, SEC Newgate UK

Allie Renison has 15 years of expertise in trade and business policy as well as public affairs, and has worked in Westminster, Whitehall, as well as Brussels and across Europe. Beginning as a parliamentary adviser, she later led research and communications for various British business campaigns. As the head of trade and international at one of the UK’s leading business membership organisations, the Institute of Directors, during Brexit, she devised policy and advocacy strategy across a number of areas from energy and transport to competition and professional services, regularly appearing in the media. She also sat on a number of government expert advisory groups, including on Northern Ireland and the Irish border during the UK’s exit from the EU. Following several years in government on appointment, including as a policy adviser to the Secretary of State at the Department for Business and Trade, Allie joined SEC Newgate UK to enhance the firm's international trade and investment practice, bringing her extensive experience to drive strategic growth.

Rachael Sansom

CEO, UK & Europe, Havas Red

Rachael is currently UK and European CEO for Havas Red, Havas Group’s global PR network. 

A strategic communications leader with a wealth of valuable experience in both agency and in-house leading local and international comms for organisation such as: The Walt Disney Company, AMEX, The IKEA foundation, Jaguar Land Rover and the UK Government. 

A regular within PR Week’s Power Book and a Cannes PR jury judge, Rachael was the creator of PR Week’s campaign of the decade and multiple Cannes Lion winning campaign ‘Missing Type’. 

Rachael’s passion is helping brands make a meaningful difference in a disrupted world.

Damini Sayal Khosla

Managing Director, Weber Shandwick, Switzerland

Indy Selvarajah

Chief Creative Officer, global markets, Ketchum

Born on the rock of Gibraltar. Sri Lankan / Malaysian blood. British by design.

Indy started his career as an artist showing work at The Serpentine Gallery,  Tate Modern & Whitney Museum of American Art in New York before writing a TV show for Channel 4, produced by Charlie Brooker.

A few years later he moved into Advertising where he wrote and created award-winning work including the Thierry Henry Sky Sports film. It is the most viewed advert in 24hrs, making Facebook history with 21 million views and the 3rd most watched ad in the world for that week.

Indy has worked at agencies including Mother, Brothers and Sisters, Weber Shandwick and Edelman Deportivo where he CD’d award winning campaigns across Xbox, HSBC, Sky, Unilever & The UN. Along the way he has won at: D&AD, Cannes, One Show, PR Week, a Guardian Top TV Show of the year, jury President for Clio’s, D&AD New Blood and judged One Show, Eurobest, British Arrows & Campaign. He continues to do talks for: Huffington Post, BFI and Channel 4.

Allison Spray

Global Head, Intel & Tech Innovation, Hill & Knowlton

Andrew Stevens

Executive Creative Director, UK & Europe, Havas Red